St. Paul's United Methodist Church

Rev. Richard W. Gray

“The Nativity of Jesus”

December 18, 2005

Luke 2:1-7

    Have you ever wondered when Jesus was actually born? Have you ever wondered why we celebrate His birth on December 25? Having been asked these questions a number of times, I have done some research for you.

    Some people refuse to celebrate Christmas, claiming the Christmas we celebrate has pagan roots and should not be celebrated as a result.

    It is true that some parts of how we celebrate Christmas can be traced back to pagan practices.

    No one knows for sure the date of Christ's birth. During the middle of the fourth century AD, the Bishop of Jerusalem wrote the Bishop of Rome and asked him to determine the date of Christ's birth. The Bishop of Rome decided the date to be celebrated would be December 25.

    Why that date? For centuries the month of December had been used by pagan religions to have parties and feasts as they waited for the coming of spring.

    There was the feast of Saturnalia in early Rome that was celebrated from December 17 through December 24. Saturnalia was the pagan god of agriculture. During this seven-day feast, gifts were exchanged. This is where the practice of giving gifts came from. One of the common gifts the people gave each other were small idols.

    They also gave evergreen branches to people to hang on their houses, which they decorated with trinkets. This is the origin of our Christmas decorations.

    Martin Luther is believed to have started the tradition of the Christmas tree. He placed candles

candles on his tree to represent the stars over Bethlehem the night Jesus was born.

    Since the pagans had this time of celebration, the Roman Bishop probably thought this would be a good time to insert Christ's birthday so the people would celebrate it. He probably wanted to get the people to stop recognizing a pagan deity and recognize Christ. He hoped keeping the celebration, but making it godly, would accomplish what he wanted. It did not work.

    The Druids in England used mistletoe. It was an emblem of peace. The tradition of the Druids was whenever an enemy passed under mistletoe, you had to embrace your enemy. The hope was this would lead to reconciliation and peace. Now you know why people embrace and kiss under mistletoe today.

    Pope Gregory 1, who was pope from 590 to 604 AD, instructed missionaries who were going to England to tap into the Druid celebrations in their attempt to convert them. The thinking was it would be easier to convert them if they were allowed to keep some of their practices.

    There was a St. Nicholas, who was a bishop in Holland, who is said to have ridden a white horse. He left gifts on porches for good children and switches for the parents of bad children to use on them.

    It was believed that he sometimes threw coins down the chimney. Sometimes these coins landed in stockings that were hanging by the fire to dry. Now you know why stockings are hung over fireplaces and why Santa Claus comes down chimneys.

year.

    We do not know the exact date for the birth of Jesus. This is not important. What we do know is Jesus was born, and where, and why.

    We do know Jesus was born in Bethlehem, just as the Bible had predicted centuries earlier. We

We know Mary gave birth to Him. And we know that the announcement of His birth was given to the shepherds in the fields outside of Bethlehem.

    The Gospel of Luke tells us that Jesus was born during a census. Jesus had to be born in Bethlehem because this is where the Bible said He would be born. If Jesus had not been born in Bethlehem, the Bible would not be accurate and would be subject to skepticism.

    Mary and Joseph were living in Nazareth. So how was God going to get them to Bethlehem so Bible prophecy could be fulfilled?

    A decree went out from the Roman Emperor, Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of his vast empire, which included Judea. The census was taken for two reasons, to find out what men were of military age and for taxation purposes.  Jewish men were exempt from military service in the Roman army, so this census was for taxation purposes for Judea.

    Bible scholar William Hendriksen gives us some information about Caesar Augustus. His original name was Gaius Octavius. He was the grandnephew of Julius Caesar. Caesar took a liking to him, named him as his son, and named heir to the throne. His name was then changed to Gaius Julius Caesar.

    His sister married Marc Antony. Antony later divorced her in favor of Egypt's Cleopatra. In 27 BC the Roman senate conferred a high honor on Gaius Julius Caesar. They gave him the name Caesar Augustus. Augustus is a title and means highly revered, highly honored, or holy one. It was a term reserved for the gods.

    God is leading the course of history so that everything is falling into place for the coming of His Son.

    Caesar Augustus ruled the Roman Empire for over forty years. He put an end to the civil wars that were taking place in the empire. He defeated

defeated Egypt and added that nation to his empire. He brought peace to the empire, Pax Romana, which made it easier for the spread of Christianity.

    Here is how God got Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem to fulfill God's promise that the Messiah would be born there. Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken.

    There was a special on TV that some of you may have seen some time ago. It was “Dateline NBC: The Birth of Jesus.” This special questioned almost everything that the Bible teaches about Christ's birth. It was poorly done, and overlooked the evidence surrounding Christ's birth.

    I'll only touch on one thing, the census. In the program, John Dominic Crossan was interviewed. He is the co-founder of the Jesus Seminar. Pay no attention to the Jesus Seminar. He said, “Luke tells us the story that at the time Jesus was born, Augustus had decreed a census of the whole earth. Now, every scholar will tell you there was no such census ever.” The sad thing is there are people who will believe what he said because a so-called expert said it on TV. What he said is absolutely untrue. It is false.

    I have seen a page from a US census taken in the 1930s of my family. The actual records exist. My father, my grandparents, and my aunt are all listed, giving their ages, marital status and occupations. As for the Roman census, we have actual census documents written on papyrus of an Egyptian census taken by the Romans. From 20 AD to 270 AD we have actual documents from every Roman census taken.

    Jewish historian Josephus wrote about a census in 6 AD that caused an uprising among the Jewish people.

    The very papers of the Roman government requiring a census every fourteen years have ben

been found.

    Subtract fourteen years from 6 AD and we have a census being ordered in 8 BC. This would have been the census to which Mary and Joseph responded.

    The Jews hated the census. The Jews hated non-Jews, known as Gentiles. The Romans were Gentiles. They felt that the presence of Gentiles in their nation made their nation unclean. Most Jews would not enter the home of a Gentile, because this would make him ceremonially unclean for proper worship. If a Jew had to travel through a Gentile nation, he would stop at the border of Israel before entering and shake the dust off of his clothes and feet lest he bring Gentile dust into his sacred homeland and defile it. They hated the Romans for occupying their nation. They hated the taxes because the taxes helped pay for the occupation of their land by pagan invaders. The Romans worshipped pagan gods, and even had images of their gods on their banners. They had the image of Caesar on their suits of armor whom they considered to be a god. The image of Caesar was on their coins. This was so upsetting to the Jews to see these images of pagan gods in their homeland.

    This is where it gets interesting. God knew exactly when Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem. Mary and Joseph would only be there for a few days. The timing had to be just right for the prophecy in Micah to come true.

    In our country a census is expected to be completed in about a year. It took much longer in Jesus' day. It is believed that there was a delay in administering the census in Judea. King Herod was a king in name only in Judea, given the job by Rome. But he knew how much the Jews detested the census, so it is believed he delayed taking the census until he could delay it no longer. This was how God worked out getting Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem at just the

the right time for the birth to take place there instead of in Nazareth. Caesar Augustus and Herod were involved in God's plans without their even knowing it.

    The US census is taken where we live. The census in Luke's Gospel was taken in the town from which your family came. So Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem. Scholar William Barclay wrote that critics used to question the fact that every man had to go to his own city for the census. He further writes that we have documentation showing that in Egypt people were required to go to their hometowns for the census. Barclay concludes by saying, “Here is an instance where further knowledge has shown the accuracy of the New Testament.” Nothing Luke has written has been disproved.

    I do not want this to be just a history lesson this morning. I want us to see that God was in control of the birth of Jesus. He worked out every detail, even using a census and people who did not know they were being used to get Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem to fulfill Old Testament prophecy.

    God still directs history. God is still in control. We may safely let Him control and direct our lives. Our lives are in His hands. There is no reason not to trust God.

         

St. Paul's United Methodist Church

335 Smyth Road

Manchester, NH 03104

Sunday School: 9:00 a.m.

Sunday Worship: 8:00 am and 10:15 am

603-647-7322